What’s up John Tory’s sleeve now?

Shortly after I wrote Friday afternoon’s post, the dam broke. Within an hour I was handed the results of a poll that showed the Liberals at 43 per cent—their highest level of support all year—and the Tories down to 33 per cent and bleeding. So what looked like a stalemate on Friday now looks like a runaway Liberal majority. At noon today, John Tory will make an announcement designed to make the issue of faith-based schools go away. Good luck.

The Conservatives are getting killed at the door on the issue of public funding for faith-based schools (in part because Liberals, when they go to the door, remind voters to ask Conservatives about it, which is all fair cricket). Still, Tory won’t abandon the issue; he’ll fudge it with a free vote or a lengthier commission or something. Whatever he says, it will be only half the story. By fudging on faith-based schools Tory will try to take away a reason to vote against him. But if he can’t couple it with a new reason to vote against Liberals, it won’t do much good. The McGuinty people expect as much. As one veteran Liberal strategist told me, “Hang on to your hat for the final 10 days.”